Hijacked Dagestan Jet Lands at Israeli Base

A pair of hijackers said to be pro-Palestinian Chechen Muslims forced a Russian airliner with 58 people aboard to Israel early today, and the plane was allowed to land in the southern Negev Desert, Israeli officials said.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak, en route to Washington for crisis talks with President Clinton, turned around mid-trip and was headed back to Israel.

Negotiations between Israeli officials and the armed hijackers were reported underway.

The Dagestan Airlines jetliner on a domestic Russian flight to Moscow was diverted Saturday night.

Danny Yatom, Barak’s chief security advisor, told reporters that the hijackers were calling their act the “Al Aqsa operation,” an allusion to the revered Jerusalem mosque that has been a central figure in a six-week Palestinian uprising against Israeli authority.

The hijackers reportedly were armed with at least one automatic weapon and an explosive device and were demanding to be allowed to give a press conference in Israel, according to Israeli radio, which reported the doors of the Tupolov 154 plane opening early this morning after it touched down at the remote Uvda military base. The hijackers were not visible.

Originally, they had demanded to land at Israel’s principal Ben Gurion Airport, which authorities sealed off and surrounded with police and ambulances. Instead, two Israeli fighter jets met the plane and diverted it to a spot over the Mediterranean before finally allowing it to land about 6 a.m. at Uvda near the Red Sea town of Eilat.

Barak, who had departed Israel late Saturday for Washington, was at a refueling stopover in England when he decided to rush home, reporters traveling with him said. Yatom said the Washington trip would be postponed.

“The prime minister is also the defense minister and this is the situation that requires the senior defense staff,” Yatom, who was accompanying Barak, told Israel radio. “If things take a turn for the better on our way back, we can always turn around.”

Yatom said it was thought that the hijackers were from Russia’s breakaway Chechnya region and were hostile to Israel.

“Of course we should prepare for more serious developments than a press conference,” Yatom said.

Yatom said Israeli authorities had asked Russia to use its influence to get the plane to land in one of Israel’s Arab neighbors instead of Israel, or perhaps Turkey or Cyprus.

Security-conscious Israel was once the scene of hijackings during the worst days of international terrorism. That the plane was allowed to land here was a remarkable development in a crisis that has already registered the deadliest violence in years.

The last hijacking to the Negev was from Iran in 1995 and involved a man seeking asylum.

There were unconfirmed reports that the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane. Israeli radio, monitoring communications with the pilot, reported him warning that he had fuel for only an additional hour of flight.

“We are counting on you,” the pilot said in Russian to the control tower at Ben Gurion, the radio said. A Russian Israeli was brought into the tower to deal with the pilot.

The pilot sounded tired but reported there was no violence onboard, said Micky Gurdis, a legendary monitor of pilot radio communications.

Army rescue teams and a contingent of senior Israeli military officers were deployed to the remote Uvda air base. Army special forces were positioned 200 yards from the plane along with 10 ambulances.

Aboard the plane were 48 passengers, including the Dagestani finance minister, and 10 crew members.

Earlier, the plane stopped and refueled in Azerbaijan after being commandeered. Local officials in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, negotiated with the hijackers and agreed to refuel the plane.

Dagestan is a Muslim region adjoining Chechnya, where the Russian military is attempting to suppress an independence revolt by Islamic nationalists. Dagestan was the scene of heavy fighting last year between Russian forces and Islamic radicals.